occurred. >> senator? >> i served with jack kennedy. i knew jack kennedy. he was a friend of mine. senator, you're no jack kennedy. [cheers and applause] >> please, you're calling taking time away from the candidate. >> that was uncalled for, as senator. [cheers and applause] >> your the one making the comparison, and i was one who knew him well. frankly, i did not think the comparison was well taken. >> and the 2012 vice- presidential debate on thursday night begins at 7:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. in a here is a portion of what he had to say. >> be where tax reform plan said only get specific about what top rate they want to lock in. the lower the rate that gets promised, the fewer the details that it provided about the rest of their plan. take a hard look at how this might be accomplished. they presented an illustrative plan with the top rate of 28%. the plan did raise significant revenue. it raised taxes on middle-class families with households making around $100,000 getting a tax increase of over a thousand dollars. under the plan, high-income households would face a smal

quayle was not able to respond to the charge that he was no jack kennedy. but the thing is the atmospherics, continuing the narrative. pressure is on joe biden to do something that causes people to not think about what happened in the last debate with the presiden he has got to be able to get back on the offensive. he has probably been told a number of things that he has got to say, many of the things the president did not say, and, hopefully, they were -- i think the obama campaign is looking for the needle to be bounced a little bit, even their their -- even though there is no tradition that shows that the needle gets a bounce by the vice presidential debate. >> there are a couple of other things we want to get your reaction to. first is from the 2008 debate in which vice president, then senator, joe biden discussed the role of the vice-president and also referenced then vice president dick cheney. >> you mentioned a moment ago that competition might give the vice president more power than it has in the past. do you believe, as vice president cheney does, that the executive b

times. >> now you are jack kennedy. [laughter] >> republicans and democrats have worked together on this. i understand you guys are not used to doing bipartisan deals. that is how you get things done. >> the republican congress working? 7% rating? >> mitt romney was governor of massachusetts. he did not demonize them, he did not demagogue them. he met with those party leaders every week. he did not compromise principles. he balanced the budget. >> why isn't he contesting massachusetts? >> what would you suggest beyond raising taxes on the wealthy? >> let the taxes expire like they were supposed to on these millionaires. we cannot afford $800 billion going to people making a minimum of a million dollars. they do not need it, martha. those 120,000 families make $800 million a year. why is my friend -- >> can you declare anything off-limits? home mortgage deductions? >> this taxes a million small businesses. >> 97% of the small businesses make less than $250,000 a year. >> this taxes a million people. >> 97%. >> and you're going to increase -- >> we are not going to cut the defense bud